Disciple Makers WANTED

Pastor Carter Goolsby, lead pastor at MCC, preached last week on making disciples of Christ. He said that many Christians believe that you have to be seminary trained or a seasoned Christian to disciple others. But he insisted that almost anyone can get in on the act. Making disciples is something we are called to do. Even the novice Christian can find someone else that they can encourage or at the very least hold accountable as peers.

Pastor Carter said that too many Christians hide behind the claim that they don’t know enough to disciple others. They are afraid of making a mistake. But this mindset fails to recognize that the original apostles were far from perfect. The whole concept is not to clone ourselves but to encourage others to be like Jesus. We are called to make disciples of Jesus not ourselves.

One of the biggest reasons that Christians shy away from disciple making is the fear of rejection. We should not be surprised when others reject us. Jesus said that this would happen.

Have you answered the call? See what Matthew 28:19 has to say about the original mission of the early disciples.

3 responses to “Disciple Makers WANTED”

One response in three doses (how Trinitarian):
1) “There’s nothing more dangerous than a little bit of theology.”
2) The word “disciple” literally means “learner” or “student” – teaching is essential, and the “know-nothing” approach to ecclesiastical leadership is neither helpful nor wise
3) “oportet semper ecclesiam eruditam” – It is necessary for the church to always be educated/learned
True, Jesus selected men who were not learned, but they were his disciples (learners), not teachers or leaders, and he was continually teaching them. I suppose that’s why they called him “Rabbi.”

Thanks for posting. It was not my intention to question the necessity of trained pastors, teachers, counselors, etc. Nor am I saying that ignorance is a virtue. That was not the point of pastor Carter’s sermon either. I can see how maybe the “seminary trained” comment could be misunderstood.

My primary point is that many people shy away from helping others become more like Christ because they are too afraid of making a mistake or being rejected. Quite frankly none of us are up to the tasks that God call us to do without God’s help. That includes seminary trained PhDs and life-long professional ministers.

The unforseen impact of waiting “until we are ready to disciple others” is that unfair pressure and expectation gets placed on the ministers in local churches. These men and women are not gods. They can’t do it all. Sure, there should be adequate training for the church members who are attempting to “disciple” others. This is one of the core missions of any local church.

I agree with the importance of education. That is why I am currently studying at a local Presbyterian seminary. I would like to point out that when Jesus’ disciples asked about the greatest in the Kingdom of God, He set a little child in front of them, not an adult or trained scholar.

While the disciples were students, they also became teachers and leaders in the early Church. One of the major reasons for discipleship is to raise up new leaders who will point even more people to Jesus. The whole concept of making disciples is to give people the chance to minister in a loving community where there is opportunity to grow and learn from mistakes. Jesus send out the disciples to minister long before they were “experts.”

Chaille:
I believe I’m right with you 99 and 44/100% – and the difficulty of this medium is that it can’t carry the tone or timbre or emotion of the words.
I’m sure my post could have sounded combative, but that wasn’t the spirit in which I composed it. I find your comments terrifically honest, open and rather refreshing as you wrestle with the many intersections of faith and modern day life.
Trust (childlike) and discipleship (learning/following – or as Paul said “be like infants in regard to evil, but in your thinking be adults”) seem to be a dyad in the same way we say faith seeks after understanding.
God bless you with faith and learning, and thanks for your posts.
BC